Teaching, Military

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

January 25, 1992

I THINK letter writer Joan Bixby is very wrong in her assessment of servicemen and servicewomen. I spent 11 years in the U.S. Air Force as an enlisted serviceman. During the last five years of my military time, I attended college, earning a degree in computer science. I have experienced the militaristic and academic callings firsthand.

The military has some people who are unable to think for themselves, and it has some people who are very much free and innovative thinkers. Most of the people in the military fall between these extremes, as do most of the people I have met in college.

Some of the people in college have the traits mentioned in Bixby's letter, while others I have met have traits such as pettiness, empire-building, laziness, political correctness, incompetence, and so on. These traits are also found in some people in the military.